Lucknow, Sept. 24 -- The biennial Rajya Sabha poll for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh on October 16 is set to be an engrossing electoral contest amid the prospect of cross-voting by lawmakers from both the ruling BJP-led NDA and the Opposition SP camps. Both sides will look to maximise the "extra votes" factor in an election where each candidate will require 37 first preference votes to win.

If cross-voting does indeed take centre stage, it could be a replay of the February 2024 Rajya Sabha election when the BJP stunned the SP by bagging eight seats instead of the expected seven due to cross-voting by SP MLAs.

The BJP may adopt the same strategy again to demoralise the SP ranks before the 2027 assembly polls.

This time, with 289 votes at it...